Jhpiego helps Indonesia establish national guidelines in infection prevention to aid in avian flu preparedness
30 May 2006
Jakarta, Indonesia— Indonesia has established
national guidelines for infection prevention and control of avian flu in health care facilities
that will now become part of the country’s avian flu preparedness strategy.
The Indonesia Ministry of Health (MoH), with technical assistance and support
from Jhpiego, an international affiliate of The Johns Hopkins University, developed a draft of
the guidelines, which outline specific infection prevention and control (IPC) and planning
measures that can help a health care facility prepare for, and respond to, an outbreak or
epidemic of avian influenza.
"It is critically important for all health care facilities to be prepared to prevent and
control the spread of any pandemic virus. Jhpiego's evidence-based infection prevention and control
practices can reduce the risk of infection and disease transmission, protect health care workers
at all levels from exposure to life-threatening diseases and promote the use of effective waste
management to limit the spread of infection to communities," explains Dr. Leslie Mancuso,
President and CEO of Jhpiego.
Jhpiego has worked closely with the Indonesia MoH and the leading infectious disease
hospital in Jakarta, Sulianti Saroso, to develop a plan to strengthen and coordinate all avian
flu-related IPC efforts at government-designated referral hospitals in Indonesia. This
capacity-building plan aims to strengthen IPC practices in these facilities by improving the IPC
skills of health care workers based at those sites.
The guidelines and plan were reviewed and finalized during a workshop on 8-10 May 2006
attended by the Indonesia MoH, local professional health associations, the World Health Organization
(WHO) and other stakeholders. At this workshop, participants had the opportunity to review and
comment on the guidelines, which will be used by the avian flu referral hospitals.
In his opening remarks at the workshop, Dr. Untung Suseno Sutarjo, representing the
General Directorate of the Medical Services Unit, MoH of Indonesia, comments, "With the implementation
of the IPC guidelines, there needs to be good recording, reporting and monitoring systems. We would
like to thank Jhpiego for collaborating with the Ministry of Health to prepare hospitals and other
health care facilities with proper infection prevention and control practices."
"This workshop has been very interesting. From one of the activities yesterday, we
learned how quickly diseases can be transmitted from human to human. These guidelines are practical
and comprehensive, and it is necessary to apply them throughout Indonesia. Under decentralization,
it is the districts’ responsibility to allocate budget funds for this program. However, it is
necessary for the Ministry of Health to develop national guidelines (such as hand washing—a very
simple practice, yet not properly performed) for this program to be implemented at the district
level," explains Dr. Heru Ariyadi, representative from ARSADA, the Indonesian Regional Hospital
Association.
For 30 years, Jhpiego has worked in Indonesia to build local health capacity with
professional health groups and with the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare, MoH, Ministry
of Women’s Empowerment (Meneg-PP), and provincial and district level governments to help Indonesia
policymakers, community leaders, educators, trainers and health providers increase access and
reduce barriers to high-quality health services. Jhpiego trained staff at the National Hospital
for Infectious Diseases in Jakarta in 2003 during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
outbreak, at the request of the MoH and the WHO.
Jhpiego's IPC initiative with the Government of Indonesia is currently being
supported with funding from members of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, including PT Freeport
Indonesia.
About Jhpiego
For 35 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
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